God Bless Sardo Foods & Their Green Olives

Those of you who are super sensitive to lactic acid or even the smallest trace of molds, look away. Don't read this blog. It will only make you sad.

The rest of you, especially if you can tolerate naturally fermented foods, come sit by me and read about my newly added item on my personal 'friendly cheat' list.

I came across Sardo Premium Select Green olives at the store. I love olives, but shouldn't eat them because of the vinegar used in the brining. For fun, I picked up the bottle of stuffed olives and read the ingredients: olives, garlic, red pepper, water, sea salt, lactic acid. Hmmm. No vinegar?

I bought a bottle and served them to guests one evening. I nibbled at 2 or 3 (ok, maybe 4 or 5. They were delicious!) and didn't have any negative symptoms over the next few days. Now I was really curious. We are allowed to eat Olive oil on the diet, so assuming the olives are made without vinegar in the brining process, logic demands that some of us should be able to eat these types of olives.

More research. Turns out good quality large green olives are often made in a salt or water brine. Hmmm. This information spurred me on to call Sardo Foods and find out about their brining process.

I was transfered to someone in the company and left a message in their voicemail, explaining that I suffered from various food allergies and wanted to learn about their brining/preserving process (for both the olives and the garlic/red pepper they stuff them with).

Kudos for great customer service. Michael at Sardo Foods called me back within an hour. No vinegar is used at all for their large green Premium Select olives (or the items that are stuffed in the olive). Other olive products that they sell DO use vinegar.

SO my lovelies, IF:

you've done the elimination diet

you are at a point where you can experiment with other foods

you know that you are not highly sensitive to lactic acid or minute traces of naturally occurring molds/yeast levels

you are a fan of olives

you might want to consider trying it as an experiment. Now, I need to remind you that not all of us are the same and just because I'm ok eating a handful of these now and then, it doesn't mean the same applies to you...but if it does...rock out on these tasty olives.

Remember, once you've opened it, yeast/mold/bacteria levels naturally rise just like any other natural foods including fruits and veggies (since they only use lactic acid as a preservative in the olives). You don't want these kicking around in your fridge for a long time once you've broken the seal. And remember to always use clean utensils to get them out of the jar.